Who were "The Men of the West"? Folk historiographies and the reconstruction of Democratic histories

Folklore, August, 2004 by Guy Beiner

Blake's grave in Tubberpatrick became a local commemoration site. Folk memory recalled that it was originally marked by ash trees that were later (circa 1910) replaced by a Celtic Cross financed by an American priest, Revd Lawrence Cosgrove of Rosemount, Minnesota (Hayes 1979, 227; Quinn 1993, 147). The Ballinamuck ballad "Blake's Grave" (attributed to the local folk poet Patrick Higgins, who composed several memorable ballads on the Rebellion [IFC S vol. 758, 455-6]) emulated the celebrated ballad "Tone's Grave" composed by the influential romantic-nationalist Thomas Davis in honour of the most illustrious United Irishman--Theobald Wolfe Tone. It begins "In Tubberpatrick graveyard, there lies a green grave," whereas "Tone's Grave" opens with "In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave" (MacDermott 1896, 253-4). This is an indication of how nineteenth-century nationalist martyrology diffused throughout Ireland and was integrated into local tradition (see also Beiner 2000a).

Folk historiography is emotional in its tone and charged with empathy. Unlike academic history, it is not an attempt to examine the past dispassionately. Yet the sympathetic nature of folklore is not necessarily devoid of subtle expressions of criticism. Alongside the overwhelming praise of his heroic bravery, some of the folklore relating to Blake's last stand at Ballinamuck expressed slight, but noticeable, traces of criticism. Storyteller Patrick Gill of Edenmore (near Ballinamuck) told how Blake committed a strategic error by leading his pikemen too early and so blocking the line of fire of the rebel artillery under the legendary rebel Gunner Magee. Gill admitted that "General Blake was a fine tall able man, a determined man for fighting." Yet he regretfully stated: "His heart was better than his head. If he had a little patience and not allow the pikemen over so soon, there wouldn't be so many of them killed" (Hayes 1979, 233). Likewise, a Ballinamuck ballad entitled "The Betrayal of Blake at Cloone" praised "Intrepid Blake," but also admitted that "faults he had some" (Devaney 1998, 88).

Altogether, Blake was not the overall hero of "The Year of the French" in folk historiographies. Even in Ballinamuck, the core area that preserved his memory, Blake was but one hero in a plethora of narratives relating to numerous heroes associated with the insurrection.

Pikemen

The 1798 monument in the village of Ballinamuck (erected in 1928) is not an image of Humbert, Blake or any of the leaders in the Rebellion, but, in the tradition of the nationalist centenary monuments, it is a statue of a pikeman--symbol of the unknown Irish rebel. This collective-anonymous representation was not lost on people of the locality, as can be noticed in a conversation recorded by a folklore collector in Ballinamuck in 1968:

Bernard Thompson: That wasn't General Blake that's in Ballinamuck, you know, that's only to represent the soldiers that fell. That man, they say, [is] the pikeman, he's nobody.

Patrick Joe Reilly: He's an unknown warrior.